Posted on 10/19/2023 9:31:11 AM PDT by JonPreston
WASHINGTON — Almost seven out of every 10 U.S. troops are either overweight or obese, according to a new report, which also warns the growing trend could compromise military readiness and undermine national security.
The American Security Project, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that studies modern national security issues, conducted the study and found 68% of active-duty service members fall somewhere between overweight and obese on the body mass index, which is a long-used but controversial method of assessing a person’s body classification by height and weight. A person between 25 and 30 on the BMI is considered clinically overweight and more than 30 is considered obese, according to the National Institutes of Health.
“Rapid and sustained recurrence of obesity across all services, ranks and positions now poses a dire threat, especially for at-risk populations and those in critical combat roles,” the group’s report states. “Designing an effective strategy to monitor and tackle obesity within the U.S. military begins by treating it like any other chronic disease.”
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
Not a reliable number if it’s based on BMI. No doubt our military has a weight problem but it’d be nice to see a study based on body fat percentage or something along those lines.
“A person between 25 and 30 on the BMI is considered clinically overweight”
Even further, it is known to be flawed for people with high muscle mass, as one would expect from a properly functioning military.
ANG is, for the most part, not the real military - especially so in regards fitness, but also in many other areas.
Also, military fitness tests - flawed as they are - are multi-function tests rather than just running. Try improving at both sit-ups and pushups, and then see your run times. You can literally become more fit and athletic overall and have your run times increase.
“Thank god they are all vaxxed and boosted.”
The vaccines were never supposed to cure anything. And they never have. But if you understand military medicine you’d know that it is within the need to keep the member in the battle and not down and out. And that’s what the vaccines provide, make you feel better therefore you can work.
The article separates overweight and obesity concerning military members. According to the Harvard T H Chan:
“Roughly two out of three U.S. adults are overweight or obese (69 percent) and one out of three are obese (36 percent).”
So this problem with the military is consistent with US society. But there’s something that is not entered into the equation. Many military members are extremely cut. If the measuring system is based upon height and weight then the in shape person could be considered overweight even though they are in tremendous shape. And remember, these are the people that have to be in shape so they work out at least 5 times a week to stay that way. I had a troop that was competing for the Washington state body building championship at light heavy that for military standards, was overweight. It happens more than you think. And the overall standard for weight and fitness is different for each of the branches to the point that the regulations involved over rule themselves.
wy69
Yardstick wrote: “Not a reliable number if it’s based on BMI. No doubt our military has a weight problem but it’d be nice to see a study based on body fat percentage or something along those lines.”
Some like BMI because it’s easy and cheap. All you need is a set of scales and a tape measure for height. About all it’s useful is as a screening test for more detailed body fat tests.
Exactly. BMI doesn’t distinguish between fat and muscle. To BMI it’s all just mass. So it would tend to lump the very fit warrior types in with the fatties as “overweight.”
I told all my folks that if they wanted the regular AF to treat them equally, people needed to not be ABLE to guess they were reservists. That used to mean staying in shape. Now it’s more the reverse: a lot of reservists are in better shape than their AD counterparts.
Colonel, USAF JAGC (ret)
The Globohomo Empire is homogenous.
Thanks for posting, BMI readings are notoriously inaccurate. However, I would not be surprised if a quarter of active duty service members are overweight and obese.
From what I have observed, the same could be said about doctors and nurses.
Correct.. the current BMI does not take muscle mass into account.
you’ll lose that bet, Comrade
Everyone on the planet is overweright in that comparison.
I have an idea…let’s recruit millions on mentally Ill Trannies and LGBTQI that a weight-fluid! That’ll help!
If I have the calculation right, a 5’8” man who weighs 165 lbs has a BMI of 25.1 and is therefore considered “clinically overweight” and unhealthy. Depending on a man’s build and musculature, that is, for many men, nonsensical, just bad, meaningless medicine. I am not advocating lowering standards to match these slack times, but a 5’8” man could very easily have minimal body fat and be perfectly healthy, in fact a fit long distance runner, at 165 lbs. In fact, some male soldiers with those dimensions could benefit from pumping iron and putting one a few more pounds of muscle. Obviously, there are better tests of body fat composition such as tape tests or floating, etc.
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